Time For Action

On Thanksgiving morning, the Volusia County sheriff's SWAT team swarmed a Deltona neighborhood where two gunmen had taken six hostages and demanded $2,000 they claimed was a payoff for a cocaine deal.

The seige ended when a hostage grabbed a gun and wounded one of the captors in the chest and hand.

Two men, one from south Florida, were arrested on drug and firearms charges. SWAT team members who stormed the house at 755 LeLand Drive found 10 gram-size packets of cocaine and several firearms, including a short-barrel shotgun.

The incident in a normally quiet residential area is a startling reminder of the dire need for a regional drug task force of the kind recently organized by the State Attorney Stephen Boyles.

It is the only way to attack drug smuggling effectively across jurisdictions. Illegal drug trafficking is a big and brutal business. City police and county sheriffs cannot combat the problem alone and offer residents the protection they need.

Law enforcement officers have cited the need for a squad of drug investigators since Sheriff Ed Duff disbanded the Volusia County Narcotics Task Force in 1985 after 12 years.

Mr. Duff's operation was poorly managed. With little accountability, it grew too independent and investigators began accusing the sheriff of interfering with investigations and not providing equipment and leadership.

Instead of addressing the problems and providing the needed guidance, Mr. Duff reassigned his investigators and dismantled the task force.

Fortunately, not only is Mr. Boyles replacing the task force, but he is broadening the countywide operation to cover the four-county circuit.

The investigators and prosecutors organized by Mr. Boyles cannot afford to make the same mistakes that were made under Mr. Duff. Any squad that has so much power and responsibility must be accountable for its actions.